YOUR HAPPINESS: IT'S UP TO YOU!

"Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions."

14th Dalai Lama

Great advice for both our personal and professional lives.

Who will have most to say about your own happiness?

If not you, who?

MAN, WOMAN, BOY, GIRL . . . ALL OF US

"Man must cease attributing his problems to his environment, and learn again to exercise his will - his personal responsibility in the realm of faith and morals."

Albert Schweitzer, 19th/20th century French/German philosopher/physician

Think how much better things would be if, starting today, we all took personal responsibility for our own circumstances?

This does not mean you solve your problems, I'll solve mine.

Only that all solutions for us both begin with each of us as individuals.

WHO DID THIS TO YOU? YOU DID THIS TO YOU

"We choose our joys and sorrows long before we experience them."

Khalil Gibran, 19th/20th century Lebanese-American artist/poet.

We do, the result of our thoughts, actions and the people we choose to associate with as well as those we don't.

People, your happiness, your destiny is on you much more than it's not.

Looking for reasons to explain why you're not happy?

Look to yourself.

WHO MAKES OR UNMAKES YOU?

"Man is made or unmade by himself. By the right choice he ascends. As a being of power, intelligence, and love, and the lord of his own thoughts, he holds the key to every situation."

James Allen (1864-1912) British-born American essayist.

What do you make of the fact that you, only you, make or unmake you?

"HUMANITY" IS YOU!

"Humanity either makes, or breeds, or tolerates all its afflictions."

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British-born American author.

Replace "humanity" with "you" and you should understand this is really good news.

You are at the center of all your problems and so too is it true, you are at the center of all your problem's solutions.

YOU'LL NEVER FORGIVE YOU?

"There is no person so severely punished as those who subject themselves to the whip of their own remorse."

Seneca (4 BC-65) Roman philosopher/playwright.

Remorse, in moderation, is a good thing.

It directs us to what and who we should be away from what we shouldn't.

Acknowledge and learn from your failings and then move on. There's no value in continual self-condemnation.

NOT WHAT YOU APPEAR TO BE, WHAT YOU ARE

"It is fortunate to be of high birth, but it is no less so to be of such character that people do not care to know whether you are or are not."

Jean de la Bruyère (1645-1696) French satiric moralist.

"High birth" isn't what it was when Monsieur de la Bruyère first spoke these words, however the underlying thought still applies.

More important than your reputation, education, money or anything else you can name is your character.

Without that your value to others is greatly diminished.

IF NOT YOU, WHO?

"Ownership is to fear."

Proverb

Because we fear losing what we own or being associated with having ownership for ideas and plans that ultimately may prove false. 

Or simply because ownership requires effort and work.

There's no denying; that is the price of ownership.

Ownership implies accepting responsibility, being responsible; something we can never do too often or be too much.

YOU CAN'T (AND DIDN'T) WIN THEM ALL

"There is the greatest practical benefit in making a few failures early in life."

Thomas H. Huxley (1825-1895) English biologist.

A foreign concept to the majority of parents who only expressed approval for their kid's achievements, both real and imagined.

No acknowledgement of failures they feared would stifle their children's self-esteem.

Too bad because it is the small, youthful defeats that prepares us for the inevitable more meaningful ones we will experience as adults.

SOMETIMES ONE, SOMETIMES THE OTHER

"I have never seen a greater monster or miracle than myself."

Montaigne (1533-1592) French philosopher and essayist.

We are capable of both.

Which you consciously attempt to be more often than the other is up to you.

WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY ARE YOU?

"The mould of a man's fortune is in his own hands."

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) British statesman/philosopher.

You may not have had the best opportunities in life or what you see as luck enjoyed by others.

Too bad.

You have what you have, which includes whatever is left of your life; are you really willing to cast that aside, in effect to quit, because you believe you weren't given enough?

If so, really too bad.

WHAT IS YOUR DUTY?

"Without duty, life is sort of boneless; it cannot hold itself together."

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist.

We all need to be responsible for something and what that is changes over time.

Identify what is and will be for you.

ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY

"There can be no doubt that the average man blames much more than he praises."

Arnold Bennett (1867-1931) English novelist.

Increasingly more so today.

People, if you did it and you shouldn't have, if you didn't and you should have, say so.

NO EXCUSES!

"No alibi will save you from accepting the responsibility."

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) American speaker/motivational writer

I wish this were always true but unfortunately it's not.

Pay attention to how many excuses you hear given for why things didn't get done.

And when it falls to you, either do it or accept responsibility for not doing it. 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

"He never chooses an opinion, he just wears whatever happens to be in style."

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian writer

"Never", which means "he" is always following the flavor of the day opinions of others.

We should all be influenced by a multitude of opinions, including our own, always changing.

IT WASN'T ME

"No one should be ashamed to admit they are wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that they are wiser today than they were yesterday."

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet and satirist

Good to remember if you are one who has trouble accepting responsibility when you are wrong.

As Mr. Pope says it simply means today was not your day but tomorrow could be.

BUT DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO ME?

"The injuries we do and the injuries we suffer are seldom weighed on the same scales."

Aesop 

6th century BC Greek fabulist

Very few, if any, reading this will admit to having done the same or more harm to others than has been done to them.

YOU DON'T (ALWAYS) HAVE TO BE RIGHT

"Be more aware of responsibility than you are of your rights."

Unknown

When it comes to . . . 

   . . . your dealings with co-workers.

   . . .  family relations.

   . . . a bicyclist riding in the road ahead of you.

Literally everyone you can think of in every situation.

For better or worse, you did it!

"Everyone is a self-made person but only the successful admit it."

Unknown

The first step to improving yourself is to own the fact that you made you.

If you can't do that much you have little chance of becoming something better.

Personal Responsibility

"There is no more sovereign eloquence than the truth in indignation."

Victor Hugo

19th century French poet, novelist

You know indignation aimed at you when you not only feel it, but believe it deserved as well.

But the important question is, what then?

What will you do to set things right?